THE FILMMAKERS

RIAD GALAYINI

RIAD GALAYINI is a photographer – actor – filmmaker. She is a Fellow of Film Independent's Directors Lab and Project Involve, a program dedicated to increasing cultural diversity in the film industry. She is the producer–director of three award winning short films: Nude Descending (Taos Talking Pictures George Melies Award, Universal Studios, American Cinematheque and Hypnotic Directors Series, Anthology Film Archives) the festival favorite, Parking, directed by James Morrison (New Directors/New Films at the Museum of Modern Art, Slamdance – Audience Award, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, Florida Film Festival – 3rd place Narrative, Sundance Channel) and her most recent, Crossing, (FIND Cinema Lounge, Vail Film Festival, Method Fest, Malibu International Film Festival, New Filmmakers Anthology Film Archives, Salento Film Festival) was the recipient of the Gold Medal for Excellence at the 2006 Park City Film Music Festival, Grand Prize Winner in the 2006 Chicks with Flicks Film Festival in Manhattan, Best Story at the Big Mountain Film Festival New Zealand, Second Place Best Narrative Urban Mediamakers, nominee for the Best Narrative at the Miami Short Film Festival, Best Fiction Film at the New York Short Film Festival, second place at the Johnstown Film Festival and winner for Best Direction at the Festival Du Cinema de Paris.

As an actor she has worked with directors Steven Spielberg, Sam Mendes, and Ridley Scott. She has performed at regional theatres, including the Mark Taper Forum and the Salt Lake Acting Company.

She has directed television commercials, plays and staged readings in Los Angeles for the Ensemble Studio, The Stella Adler, The Hudson and The Tiffany theatres, and her photographs have been published in national magazines. She is developing two feature films, The Last Nail and Far Across Yonder (FIND Directors Lab, IFP Market Emerging Narrative Award Finalist, Script Pimp Competition Finalist, Winner Century City Screenplay Competition) written by her husband and partner, James Morrison.

Born to a Cuban American mother and a Lebanese father, Riad was raised in a little yellow house in Miami, Florida where tempers often flew and dinners were always phenomenal.

JAMES MORRISON

JAMES MORRISON Has directed, written or produced three award-winning short films and has had plays developed and produced by the Sundance Institute and Ensemble Studio Theatre among many others. As an actor, he served his apprenticeship with the Alaska Repertory Theatre in the late 70's and has since appeared at the La Jolla Playhouse, the Mark Taper Forum, Princeton's McCarter Theatre, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Salt Lake Acting Company, The Old Globe in San Diego and on London's West End at the Donmar Warehouse. He has received the Los Angeles Drama Critics' Circle Award and three Drama-Logue Awards for performance. His film appearances include the soon to be released I Am I, the recently completed One of Us Must Know, Catch Me If You Can, The One, Jarhead, American Gun, Wilderness Survival for Girls and Raspberry Magic. On television, in addition to 4 seasons on 24 as Bill Buchanan, James had recurring roles on ABC's Private Practice and Hawthorne for TNT, for three seasons. He starred as McQueen on FOX's cult sci-fi classic series Space: Above and Beyond and has been a guest on what might be hundreds of television shows including Law and Order, L.A., Six Feet Under, The West Wing, Frasier, Cold Case, The X-Files, and most recently, the YouTube webseries, Blue with Julia Stiles, directed by Rodrigo Garcia and Revenge for ABC as the White Haired Man. Certified to teach yoga by the White Lotus Foundation, James teaches at L.A.'s oldest studio, the Yogaworks Center for Yoga in Larchmont Village on Saturdays with live percussionists, SoulKaTu. Also a singer/songwriter, his first album, Son to the Boy, is available on iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere, including www.jpmorrison.com. James lives in Los Angeles, California with his beautiful wife, Riad and his beautiful son, Seamus.